In the space, a plasma accelerating apparatus is used for the spacecraft to get a thrust. As the plasma accelerating apparatus, for example, a Hall thruster is known. For example, the Hall thruster generates an electric field and a magnetic field in an acceleration channel (a plasma acceleration region) and changes (plasmatizes) a propellant into plasma by using interaction of the electric field and the magnetic field. The Hall thruster acquires the thrust by expelling ions in the plasma into the space on a downstream side from the Hall thruster.
As the related technique, Patent Literature 1 discloses a Hall current ion source apparatus. The Hall current ion source apparatus of Patent Literature 1 has, for example, a magnetic field generating unit which contains an electromagnet and a steel core assembly. By arranging the magnetic field generating unit on the central axis of the Hall thruster, a radial direction magnetic field is generated.
Also, to generate the acceleration electric field, the Hall current ion source apparatus further has an anode and a cathode in addition to the magnetic field generating unit. The anode is arranged on the upstream side from the acceleration channel. On the other hand, the cathode is arranged on the downstream side from the acceleration channel.